XXVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
centre of investigation to another with facility, and this is an obvious 
gain, especially when the coast to be investigated is so extensive and 
varied as that of the Atlantic seaboard of Canada. A fixed station on 
land, while advantageous for minute microscopical, physical and chemi- 
cal studies, on account of the absence of vibration, has the serious dis- 
advantage of confining the work to a limited area and affording direct 
and convenient access to a portion of the coast only, viz., that portion 
immediately adjacent to the site of the building. This disadvantage 
has been acutely felt in some European and United States scientific 
stations, and, even at the famous Zoological Station at Naples, it has 
been found that, in certain lines of research, the available materials for 
study became scarcer and more difficult to obtain as the years went by, 
and costly steam-boats, fitted up as scientific laboratories, have been 
found necessary to overcome this great difficulty. It is clear that a 
floating station ensures the readiest opportunity for scientific investi- 
gations, during the same season and during successive seasons, along 
different portions of the coast, and the waters adjacent thereto. The 
Canadian station combines in a unique manner the features of both 
types of laboratory—the fixed and the floating type—for, in accordance 
with a suggestion originally put forth by the director of the station, 
Professor Prince, the building has been so devised as to admit of being 
readily drawn up above high-water mark at the end of each voyage, and 
there so securely fixed on the beach, as to furnish all the most desirable 
conditions of a land location. This idea of the Director has worked 
well, and it is probably the first biological station in existence which 
embodies this dual character of the floating and fixed marine station. 
The transference by water from St. Andrews to Canso, early in the 
season of 1901, was accomplished successfully, but was not without its 
perils. Under the careful and skilful superintendence of Captain J. 
H. Pratt, of the Dominion fisheries cruiser “ Curlew,” the trip was 
made without any mishap. The voyage of four or five hundred miles 
was a somewhat hazardous undertaking, as the distance is much greater 
than the station is ever likely to travel at a single trip again, and the 
exposed nature of the coast and the unfavourable time of the year (early 
spring) combined to make it a notable excursion for a craft not built 
for long voyages. On arrival at Canso the station was at once beached 
and placed in position at the east end of the town of Canso. 
At the usual half-yearly meeting of the Board of Management, 
held in the office of the Commissioner of Fisheries in Ottawa, on Feb- 
ruary 20th, 1901, an Assistant Director was nominated, viz., Professor 
Ramsay Wright, whose appointment was sanctioned by order-in-council, 
dated March 12th, 1901, and authority was also given for the engage- 
